16 comments on “Button keeps McLaren on top in Korea”

It just occured to me that Red Bull – with Vettel at least – might try to gear their setup more towards qualifying for the remainder of the season to try maintain their 100% pole record now that the drivers title is wrapped up and the constructors title is practically certain.

“…Lewis Hamilton had looked faster but Michael Schumacher blocked Lewis in no uncertain terms and left Hamilton frustrated. Clearly the Mercedes was never going to be a match for the McLarens, the car being around two and half seconds a lap slower, but Michael seemed in no mood to get out of the way. Whether he was trying to screw with Hamiltonâ€™s head or simply being bloody-minded is hard to say.

The same thing happened to Sebastian Vettel with Jaime Alguersuari being the man in the way. It will be interesting to see what happens in qualifying but Mercedes needs to be a little careful because the FIA Stewards gave the team a bit of a smack on Friday evening with a fine of â‚¬10,000 (â‚¬5,000 suspended) for failing to appear in a timely manner for a disciplinary investigation (which roughly translates as lack of respect for the authorities)…”

Schumacher’s got his own session to worry about. He did his super-soft runs earlier on so he was going slower than he might have been at this point. He obviously had a programme to complete and it’s not his job to get out of Hamilton’s way.

In qualifying it’s a different matter because you’re not allowed to impede people, but this was practice.

Keith, I certainly can understand you didn’t yet get to analyse FP3, but it would be great if you could find time to do that still. Does anyone have the laptimes?

I haven’t been able to see FP3, but hear that the long run pace was quite interesting between the McLaren’s and Red Bulls, and Ferrari being happy with their tyre wear, it would be great to have more insight before the race, especially with Red Bull seemingly planning some different strategy.